SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the home of considerable numbers of merchants. 160 But excessive taxation 

 and the other evils which marked the close of the Lancastrian and the 

 opening years of the Tudor period told heavily upon the prosperity of the 

 towns. Old Shoreham practically vanished, and the inhabitants of New 

 Shoreham were reduced by 1421 from over 500 to 36. Between 1472 and 

 1496 the borough 'now of late gretely wasted by the sea' was nine times 

 exempted from contribution to tenths and fifteenths ; m and Henry VIII in 

 1540 and 1541 had to put pressure upon Chichester, Lewes, and the Cinque 

 Ports to induce them to effect restorations. 162 



It was upon a society in this state of transition that the changes of the 

 sixteenth century dawned. It is unfortunately impossible to estimate the 

 exact effect of the inclosing movement in Sussex, as no returns exist of 

 the commission of 1517. There are, however, certain special considerations 

 which have to be taken into account in considering the question in this 

 county. In the first place the Weald of Sussex is one of those districts 

 mentioned by Dr. Slater as being ' first brought into cultivation after the 

 disappearance of serfdom,' and consequently inclosed easily and naturally at a 

 comparatively early date. 163 This fact is well illustrated by the important 

 part played by the assart lands in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and subsequent 

 centuries. 164 Possibly the first recorded example of an assart in Sussex was that 

 made at Burwash shortly after the Conquest by the count of Eu and given by him 

 to Levessunt his huntsman; 165 and another early instance occurs in the twelfth- 

 century charter of Robert de Dene, giving to Lewes Priory certain lands 

 ' which down to recent times had been woodland.' 168 In the court rolls of 

 Weald and forest parishes such as Laughton, Mayfield, Framfield, Wadhurst, 

 Uckfield, and Buxted, there are frequent notices of assart holdings. 167 In 

 12945, 4 acres of land within Ashdown Forest were thus leased to tenants 

 at a rent of 4^. an acre, and reclaimed ; 168 while in Laughton a single assart 

 tenement might consist of as many as 30 acres. 169 In Burwash in 1334 

 nearly half the chace of ' Dalynton ' was already assarted. 170 When it 

 is remembered, moreover, that in spite of this system of reclaiming the 

 waste, the forests of Ashdown, St. Leonards and Worth remained real 

 forests until the great age of the iron industry, it will be seen that there 

 cannot have been much room in primitive times for common fields 

 husbandry. 



In the Down parishes there must have been large tracts of sheep pasture 

 from a comparatively early date ; not only is there evidence of considerable 

 export, 171 but in the early years of the thirteenth century the bishop of 

 Chichester decreed that 3,150 sheep should always be kept upon the 

 episcopal manors, 172 and in 1244 there were in Eastbourne manor a pasture 



160 Rot. Parl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 497*. 



" l Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry (1905), i, 455 ; Rot. Parl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 159^ ; vi, 40^, 

 114^, 119*, 151^, 197^, 4ou, 438^, 442^, and 514*. 



161 Stat. 32 Hen. VIII, cap. 18, and 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 36; cf. Cunningham, Growth of Engl. 

 Industry (ed. 1905), i, 507. 



163 Engl. Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common fields, 148 and 176-7. 



164 Add. Ct. R. 31860. 16i Assize R. 912, m. 16. 



1M Cott. MS. Nero, C. iii, fol. 217. " 7 P.R.O. Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), ptfo. 206, No. 33 and 35. 



168 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1027, No. 22. 169 Add. Ct. R. 31865 and 31868. 



170 Add. MS. 33189, fol. 49. 17: Supra. 



171 Cal. of Chart. R. i, 34 ; cf. stock on the bishop's manors in Add. MS. 6165, fol. 107 seq. 



189 



